PRIMARY MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: 1969

Public Interest in Lunar Samples

While the laboratory teams worked two shifts a day to prepare the
sample: for outside researchers, project managers were considering how
to deal with a growing public curiosity about the first rocks returned
from the moon. Even before Apollo 11 left the launch pad, requests for
lunar specimens for display had begun to arrive at the Manned Spacecraft
Center. When MSC scientists expressed concern at what these requests
might lead to, Apollo project manager George Low asked Headquarters for
help in developing a policy to deal with them. Low's principal concern
was that NASA "would arouse the animosity of the scientists in this
program by wholesale or capricious distribution of valuable lunar
material for nonscientific purposes." Low considered it appropriate
to prepare a few lunar specimens for touring exhibits at major museums
in the United States and abroad, provided they were eventually returned
to the lunar receiving laboratory for scientific use. He also expected
to be asked for samples to be presented to various VIPs; this MSC was
willing to do, provided the number and size of such samples could be
kept quite small. MSC scientists were alarmed, however, by a White House
proposal to present lunar samples to the heads of state of 120
countries.67

Apollo program director Sam Phillips replied that his office was
accountable for the spacecraft and all hardware items that had gone to
the moon; presumably that responsibility extended to the lunar samples
as well (although it appears that this point had not been explicitly
settled), and Phillips asked Houston for suggestions as to procedures.
Concerning the lending of samples to museums and presentation of
souvenirs to VIPs, however, he noted that "The Administrator will
make the final determination of the overall allocation of lunar material
for scientific and other purposes."68 A mid-August general management review at
Headquarters reaffirmed this position, stating that the Public Affairs
Office had primary responsibility for arranging exhibition,
presentation, or other uses of the samples, and it was directed to
develop plans for presentation, "if possible, of small amounts of
lunar material to Chiefs of State as desired by the President." The
Offices of Manned Space Flight and Space Science and Applications were
asked to indicate how much material, if any, and what kind (i.e., rocks
or dust) could be made available for such purposes.69

When Headquarters called for that information, MSC's response reflected
the view of lunar scientists. They were not inclined to be liberal in
giving away lunar rocks, which they rightly regarded as a priceless
scientific resource. Director Robert R. Gilruth replied that he could
make available 150 to 200 presentation samples, each consisting of 100
milligrams (less than the volume of an aspirin tablet) of fines from the
bulk or contingency samples. Concerning VIP souvenirs, Gilruth said that
"we could make available if required about 10 samples of 1 gm
each... to be given away if needed [emphasis in the
original]," but the Center would prefer not to part with samples
that big. For museums, ten 50-gram (1.75-ounce) rock specimens might be
made available on loan, provided they could be recalled on one month's
notice by Houston's curator of lunar samples.70

Not surprisingly, public interest in the lunar samples was tremendous,
and in September the first of several displays of moon rocks was opened
in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Thousands queued up to get
a glimpse of a moon rock; many found it disappointingly ordinary.71 Presentation samples - tiny portions of
lunar dust, packaged in plastic vials and attractively mounted in
plaques - were prepared for the world's heads of state and presented by
astronauts or government officials on world tours. So far as can be
determined, no lunar rocks were cut and polished as paperweights for the
desks of VIPs.

69. Willis H. Shapley to multiple
addressees, "Lunar Sample Material," Aug. 19, 1969. It was
reported that Nixon offered the President of Indonesia and other chiefs
of state "a piece of the moon as a souvenir"; New York
Times, July 28, 1969, cited in Astronautics and
Aeronautics, 1969: Chronology on Science, Technology, and Policy,
NASA SP-4014 (Washington, 1970), p. 249.

Forwarding the latter memo to George Low, Wilmot Hess (whose deputy,
Anthony Calio, had drafted it for Gilruth's signature) stressed his own
distaste for the plan to present large samples to VIPs - a distaste that
was shared by the lunar scientists. Elbert King, who had been appointed
first curator of lunar samples, did everything he could to prevent
distribution of any lunar samples as souvenirs. When he first heard of
the plan to present souvenirs to VIPs, his impression was that
"they were talking about big polished pieces of rock for
paperweights. . . . Here was priceless scientific material that was
going to be cut up as political trophies." The White House proposal
was even more offensive to King, and when a Washington paper called him
to ask for his reaction, he commented that it would be unthinkable - a
reaction which, he recalled later, "caused much unhappiness within
the center, because here was someone [at MSC] disagreeing with the
President, and that's very poor form." Elbert A. King, Jr.,
interview with L. S. Swenson, Jr., May 27, 1971, tape in JSC History
Office files; Marti Mueller, "Trouble at NASA: Space Scientists
Resign," Science 165 (1969): 776-79.

Nixon had already drawn considerable adverse criticism from some
newspapers, which accused him of trying to turn Apollo to his own
political advantage in spite of his negligible record of supporting the
space program. His telephone call to the astronauts on the moon, the
addition of his signature to those of the astronauts on the
commemorative plaque on the lunar module Eagle, and his visit to the
Hornet (on his way to a tour of Asia), were all cited as attempts to get
unmerited credit for the Apollo accomplishment. See the editorial in the
Washington Post, "Our Mark on the Moon," July 3,
1969; Herblock's cartoon "Lunar Hitchhiker," Washington
Post, July 6, 1969; "Plaque Pique," Washington
Evening Star, July 9, 1969; Marianne Means, "President
Nixon and the Astronauts," Los Angeles
Herald-Examiner, July 13, 1969; "Hate the President,"
Richmond (Va.) News Leader, July 15, 1969; William Hines, "Nixon
Skims Off the Cream," Washington Sunday Star, July 27,
1969.